SO SAD: Guitarist Dave Murray Officially Announce To Leave Iron Maiden Due To…
Bruce Dickinson looked back on aspects of Iron Maiden’s inner dynamics which annoyed him and guitarist Adrian Smith when they left the band in the ’90s, and explained that their decision to return was “a choice.”
Although it ushered in a very interesting — and arguably just as underrated — Blaze Bayley era, Bruce Dickinson’s departure from Iron Maiden came as a shock for a large part of the NWOBHM giants’ fans, some of whom only recovered when Bruce returned to the fold in 1999 and another successful era with him at the front began.
A quarter of a decade has passed since, and it all may seem like ancient history, especially given the rock-solid unity that defined the last two-and-a-half decades for Iron Maiden.
However, both he and Adrian Smith had good reasons to leave when they did, Dickinson tells Stereogum in a new interview.
Asked to comment on the matter that there have been no lineup changes in Iron Maiden in the new millennium, the vocalist said:
“I think we’ve all grown up just enough to appreciate that we were all separate individuals who got together to play Iron Maiden music.
I think what pissed Adrian off, and me to a certain extent, was this idea that we were just this homogenous blob that was Iron Maiden. That we were a single block of concrete. Adrian rebelled against that.
I didn’t particularly like the idea either. Because it was, like, ‘Are we not individuals then?’ And then it was, ‘To a certain extent.’ Well, no. Now we’ve rejoined.
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